Conventionally, a valve timing control apparatus, which has a housing that is rotatable synchronously with a crankshaft and a vane rotor that is rotatable synchronously with a camshaft, is known to control valve timing with hydraulic fluid supplied from a supply source, such as a pump, in accordance with rotation of an internal combustion engine. For example, in an apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, valve timing is controlled by varying a rotational phase of a vane rotor with respect to the housing to the advance side or the retard side by introducing hydraulic fluid from a supply source to an advance chamber or a retard chamber partitioned with vanes of the vane rotor in a rotational direction.
In the apparatus in Patent Document 1, the rotational phase is regulated at a regulation phase located between a full advance phase and a full retard phase so as to provide predetermined startability which can be obtained at the regulation phase upon start of the internal combustion engine by cranking. For example, it is desirable that before stop of the internal combustion engine, a regulation pin is inserted into a recess part so as to ensure a rotational phase regulation operation upon next starting.